Forced Talent
by snoodlebop
Summary: Safina was ten years old when she killed her mother.  Rated T for violent themes.
1. Chapter 1

Safina was ten years old when she killed her mother.

"Disgusting! How can you expect me to eat this?" Kylara's shrill voice lashed at her young daughter, causing the sting of tears behind the girl's eyes.

"I'm sorry! I'll try again. The pan was too hot! Please mum!" Safina cried, stepping back, away from the expected blow.

"Go to your room, I have lost my appetite, I shall speak to you later!"

Safina fled, slippered feet masking her hurried retreat. Once in her room she began to tremble, her entire body wracked with terrible shudders. She knew her mother's retribution would be devastating, fear closed off her throat and for a few heart-wrenching moments, she struggled for breath. Her mind span with the possible ramifications of her actions.

Starvation was unnecessary, her mother had not fed Safina for nearly two weeks. She managed to scrape by with stolen scraps and rifling through the rubbish heaps behind her block. Already trending to a slender figure, Safina was horrifically underweight. Every bone in her body prodded visibly through almost transparent skin. Dark rings hovered underneath her enormous brown eyes and gave her the appearance of a girl much older, in early teens at least. In a world where image was everything, it was not uncommon for girls as young as she to develop eating disorders, and a child from the 'Roots' was over-looked much more readily than a child from a wealthier district.

Her mother was, amongst other things, a severe alcoholic. It is a story that has been told before and will be told again. Safina was caught in a terrible crossfire that she had no power to escape. Kylara would drink and she would strike her daughter. She would wake up and she would scream and insult her. Kylara would look upon her beautiful, clever child, and hate that she herself had been an ugly girl, and was a much uglier woman. Kylara would look upon her daughter and see her life disappear into obscurity. An obscurity that she had always dwelled in, though never realised as much. Hatred and jealousy spiralled inside her warped mind until all she had lost, and all that she had never had, was the fault of that one tiny child.

Safina had been five years old, her life, though far from normal or happy, had been easy and simple in the way only a child that young can perceive it. At five years of age she had tried a pair of her mother's shoes on her tiny feet. Warily she proceeded, hobbling across the room, proud of her accomplishment and watching herself in the floor length mirror. Of course she fell, she did not cry, that never brought anyone anyway. Instead, she huffed and struggled to untangle herself from the shoes. It was at that point that her mother entered the room and saw her shoes, which had cost her more Credit than she could afford, in a tangled mess on the floor, a deep scratch across the polished toe of one of them. Her scream was heard three floors up and as many down.

Safina wore a cast on her left arm for three months after that incident.

The sound of her mother muttering to herself carried down the hallway to Safina's tiny bedroom. They abated to make way for the sound of liquid being poured, with little finesse, into a chalice. The young girl could sense her mother's anger reaching fever pitch, the vivid red buzzing of her mother's thoughts were at the forefront of her mind and Safina knew that there was more than the usual viciousness to Kylara's thoughts. She attempted to probe a little deeper, but could not find away through her mother's natural shields. She could hear the basics of the older woman's thoughts and they filled her with dread. If she allowed her mother to touch her tonight, she knew she would not survive.


	2. Chapter 2

"Did you _Hear _her!"

"Every talent as far as Deneb heard her, Gollee."

_How has a child that powerful escaped our screening? _The Rowan's mental voice intruded into the mind of her husband.

_She lives in an old part of what was once New York, it's called the Roots…they are left to fend for themselves there is no FT&T representative anywhere near there, love _Jeff's placed his head in the palms of his hands and sighed.

_We need to find her! She is terrified, can anyone still reach her_? Damia joined the conversation, paired with the gentle reassurance of Afra's mental touch.

_She is still broadcasting on quite a wide band, it sounds like sobs, no coherent thoughts_. Jeff was reaching to her, trying to sooth the girl's reaction, but she was to intently focused on whatever had made her so upset that she did not respond.

_Find her, Dad, I can't bear to think of her out there alone!_ Damia was close to tears, her heart breaking for the absolute terror that had invaded her mind only a few moments before.

"Gotcha!" Jeff vanished from the couch in his office in Blundell, Gollee stared at the place he had been and mentally bade him good luck. The Rowan honed in on her husband's location and kept a tight link with his mind.

The smell was constant, a thick, cloying stink of heat and people and the sickly sweet odour of rotting vegetables. Jeff could have teleported himself directly in front of the child, but he could sense that she had no comprehension of her own talent, and he doubted that she had ever met a Talent in person. He was unwilling to expose her to any more trauma.

The door to her block was broken inwards; the steel around the lock had been bent and clearly forced open. He 'reached' for Safina and instantly coiled away again. There was so much violence, hatred and sorrow radiating from the building that he felt a dizzying wave of nausea and folded over, holding tight to his stomach.

The Rowan gently 'lifted' the worst of the feeling; until he thought he could go on without losing his breakfast.

_People really live like this?_ Rowan's voice was the equivalent of a whisper, and he felt her focus loosen as she spoke to Gollee, ordering something to be done for the unfortunates of 'The Roots'.

Safina was on the third floor of the apartment, and Jeff eyed the stairs warily. Deciding that they looked sturdy enough, he made his way upwards. He kept his mind firmly clamped shut, he had found her location and knew exactly where she was, but he could not bring himself to hear the broadcasting misery that was these people's lives.

If she is as strong as I think she is, how could she not be affected, no training…..she hears this every day of her life! Damia was 'riding' her father's mind and she felt what he felt. Normally Jeff would have been angry by her lack of manners, but he could feel her distress and allowed the intrusion.

He could hear the child now, arriving in front of her door to her apartment. Quiet, whimpering sobs came from the corner of what could have been described as a kitchen, but was more of a liquor store.

She was tiny, much smaller than he imagined that she would be, her emaciated state and her exhausted despair emanating from her mind and body was enough to bring a welling of tears to Earth Prime's eyes. He crouched before her and spoke on both levels.

"Safina? My name is Jeff Raven; I'm here to take you away."

The girl lifted her face, eyes wide and bloodshot. A huge black bruise was beginning to appear along the line of her jaw, and there was a shallow wound at her hairline that had recently stopped bleeding.

"I didn't mean to! I couldn't help it….she would have hurt me again and again until…." Her voice was hoarse from crying and her mind shouted the words along with her. Jeff felt her attempting to force her innocence upon his mind, and wondered if she even knew what she was doing.

"I know, little one, I'm going to take you to hospital, and away from this place. You won't have to be afraid anymore." With those words, Jeff 'encouraged' her to fall asleep, and gently lifted her into his arms. She weighed next to nothing.

_Gollee?_

_The Talent ward is ready for her, is she physically injured? _ Blundell's second in command was instantaneous in his reply.

_I think she has a broken rib, and multiple bruises and minor cuts. She has not been treated with care._ Jeff's voice took on a harsh tone and he 'ported himself and his burden into the hospital in the Capital.


End file.
